Physics 7LC Syllabus Fall 2020 PDF

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Physics 7LC Syllabus Fall 2020

Overview of the course Welcome to Physics 7LC! I am Professor Thorsten Ritz, the instructor of record for this course. I oversee the teaching and learning assistants (TAs and LAs) who run class. As you are aware, we will be teaching this laboratory course completely online this quarter. As such, this will be a learning experience for everyone involved, students and instructors alike. Your “Laboratory Sessions” will occur via Zoom and will be hosted by your TAs and Las. Although I will likely not be in the individual video sessions, I welcome interaction with you. I have weekly office hours Fri at 2 pm via Zoom at https://uci.zoom.us/j/92335758199 in which I am available to answer questions and listen to your feedback. If you cannot make it at that time, please send me an email and I will be happy to set up a video link. On this page, you will find a detailed syllabus including FAQ that should cover most issues arising. It is a lot to read and I don’t expect you to have digested it all by the first This course covers the fundamentals of motion, including the concepts of force, energy, momentum, rotation, and gravity. By the end of the course, you will be able to: 1. Develop toolkits and strategies for solving physics problems in general 2. Analyze physical situations using physical concepts 3. Make predictions of motion for given initial conditions Physics is part of many scientific programs and general education requirements because physics teaches you to think in a new way. The cornerstone of this new way of thinking is using models instead of memorization. The activities in this course are designed to help you learn this new way of thinking, but for it to work it will require your full participation. One thing that is different about physics is that much of physics is counterintuitive and therefore takes a long time to absorb. Even questions which sound simple are often challenging. When you miss a question, it is a natural and expected part of learning physics -- not a reflection of your learning abilities or a signal that something is wrong! In fact, answering questions -- correctly or incorrectly -- and discussing them is a much more effective way to learn and retain knowledge than to be told the answer. These ideas, founded in significant research, are why the class is structured as a tutorial rather than a traditional laboratory. We describe the structure of this class in detail below. In addition to learning physics content, this course also has a goal of increasing your skills in scientific communication and collaboration. The purpose of working in a group is twofold: to help you learn more effectively, and to prepare you for the interaction you will have with colleagues in your future career. Whether you plan to be a researcher, an engineer, a doctor, an industry professional, or a wide variety of other careers, you will need to work successfully with diverse groups of people. The collaborative activities in this class are designed both to help you better learn the course content and develop these important communication and teamwork skills. Even when you understand a concept, it is important to engage with your group. Learning how to explain it clearly enough for a classmate to understand is a very useful skill! I welcome your feedback -- positive or negative -- throughout the term (including anything missing or unclear in this syllabus), and look forward to our time together! Thorsten Ritz ([email protected]), 210H Rowland Hall (this Fall, I expect to be available online only)

Course materials and enrollment Website. https://canvas.eee.uci.edu/courses/31515 (Links to all assignments and course materials) 1

Physics 7LC Syllabus Fall 2020 Textbook. Tutorials in Introductory Physics, by McDermott and Shaffer, edition 1 (ISBN-10: 0130970697, ISBN13: 978-0130970695). It is available from Amazon and The Hill bookstore (The Hill website may have the wrong edition listed). This is a package of two books: one called “tutorials” and the other “homework.” This text is also used for 7LD. We will use both at various points through the course. In addition, we will use the Physics Tutorial manual. This is available at The Hill bookstore only. ISBN: 978-15339-2052-2. Because many students are not physically present on campus, we will make pdf’s of the Tutorial manual available for each week in this quarter. If and when we return to full in-person instruction the manual will be required for 7LC and 7LC. Enrollment. To enroll in this course, you must sign up for the lecture course Physics 7C. If you do not enroll in both 7C and 7LC, the registrar may drop you from both courses, so make sure you are enrolled! However, please note that this course is completely separate from Physics 7C. As required by the university, finalize your enrollment via WebReg by Friday of the end of Week 2 (Week 2 is the second full week of classes). Only WebReg, Access UCI, or UCI Extension can enroll you; the Physics Department Student Affairs Office answers questions about enrollment. Please address your questions to the Student Affairs Office rather than the TA or instructor to make sure you get accurate information.

Class structure and motivation What are tutorials? Tutorials are a research-based physics curriculum. Their goal is to help you better understand the hardest concepts you are learning in class, use small experiments to test the physics phenomena, and sometimes work through mathematical difficulties. The tutorials consist of pretests, worksheets, and homework. The pretests will help you see your current level of understanding before you begin the worksheet. The worksheets step you through important ideas to help you resolve how you think about the world around you with what is known about physics. The homework will help you cement these ideas. The original materials were developed at the University of Washington after years of research on student understanding of physics concepts. Tutorials have since undergone many cycles of testing and implementation. What will I do during class? During class, you will work in small groups. This is a chance to work in a smaller setting with fellow students, teaching assistants, and learning assistants. At the start of class you will take a pretest. Then you will work through worksheets in small groups at your own pace. Because this class is taught online, you will not be able to perform experiments yourselves. Instead, you will be able to watch videos of the experiments to allow you to progress through the worksheets. The teaching team will move from group to group to help you through tough spots and check your understanding. As part of this process, they will ask a specific member of your group questions about the work you have just done. The credit you earn for the worksheets is be based on how well you and your team answer these questions, and your thoroughness as you progress through the worksheet, not on whether you complete the worksheet. The role of the teaching team is a learning coach, not someone who tells you the correct answers. This is because, although as you are learning you may just want for someone to tell you the answer, education research indicates that passive learning (in which students listen to an expert explain ideas) is not as effective as active learning. In active learning, the responsibility for learning is shifted to the students. This often means that the learning feels harder and may be frustrating at times, but this hard work pays off later. In particular, this approach will help your learning last beyond the test so that it provides you with a foundation for your future classes and career. What do I need to prepare for class? For the format of this class to be successful, your group must be able to have productive conversations about physics. This means you will need background knowledge. Before class, memorize the definitions and theories from the homework. You should be able to recite these things, but you are not expected to fully understand them or be able to apply them correctly yet. For your conversations to be successful, please make an honest effort to engage with all of your group members for the full class period. It is intentional that you are not assigned groups of two -- more perspectives 2

Physics 7LC Syllabus Fall 2020 from 3 or 4 students will help you have three or four different perspectives to discuss. Students at your level can figure out a great deal of material in discussions with three or four students -- even when no one initially knows the answer!

Course components and grading Activity

Description

Classwork 61% of grade

Classwork scores are earned on activities during class in weeks 2-7 and 9: 1. Completing the pretest at the beginning of class with answers and reasoning (no 1 credit earned if you arrive to class late ). Full credit is earned only if you write explanations for each answer. (2% each week with the lowest score dropped) 2. Working productively and cooperatively with your assigned group for the full class period on tutorials, and participating in class discussions. If you do not engage fully with your group and class during discussions, you will not earn credit. 3. Turning in a copy of the tutorial (one per group) with your group’s work and your name written in the upper left-hand corner. Each student must write his/her own name to receive credit. Full credit is earned only for thorough work and explanations. If you do not complete the tutorial but work diligently for the full class period and make satisfactory progress according to the teaching team, you will still earn full credit. Regardless of whether you attend a class, you will be responsible for all course content. We recommend you plan to attend the rotation weeks at the end of the quarter, as many students find these topics to be the most difficult in the course.

Homework 20% of grade

Weekly homework assignments (assigned in weeks 1-7 and 9) are posted after your weekly class meeting, and are due at 7am on the day your tutorial section meets. These assignments have three parts, which you will submit in two questionnaires/surveys each week. 1. Content review and content preparation. The first part is a review of the topics covered in the tutorial you completed in class. The second part is an introduction to the concepts covered in the next tutorial (for next class). Unless specified otherwise in a question or assignment, all homework questions earn credit for correctness, clarity, and thoroughness. 2. Course feedback. The last part of the weekly course feedback, which helps the physics department and teaching team assess and improve this course. This questionnaire is separate from the homework because the responses are anonymous. For the course feedback, credit is earned for completeness only. Your answers to the course feedback questions do not affect your grade (unless you do not complete the assignment). Homework submitted the same day as the due date but after 7am earns 80% credit (i.e. the score that would have been received based on correctness multiplied by 0.8). Homework submitted the day after the homework is due or but earlier than the final exam earns 50% credit. Late homework scores are updated periodically. The lowest homework score will be dropped. Note that MasteringPhysics is not used in this course.

Syllabus quiz 1% of grade

The syllabus quiz is an online assignment graded for correctness. It is due by 6pm Monday of week 3.

Final exam 16% of grade

The final exam will take place during week 10. It will have an individual piece and a group piece. The exam will be comprehensive; it will include topics covered through the whole quarter. The individual piece will take place online, similar to your homework. However, it is a timed

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Exceptions may be made for excused absences 3

Physics 7LC Syllabus Fall 2020 exam. A timer begins when you start the exam, and it is not paused when if you log out of Canvas. The individual exam will open at 9am two days before your class meeting during week 10, and the exam must be submitted in Canvas no later than one hour before the start of your class meeting during week 10. For example, if your class meets Tuesdays at 11am, you may start your exam any time after Sunday at 9am, and you must submit the exam by Tuesday at 10am (week 10). The individual, online component will consist of questions problems similar to the tutorial and homework. There will be questions about definitions, concepts, and calculations. Many questions will also require a written explanation of your work, which will be graded for correctness, clarity, and thoroughness. The individual component of the exam must be your own work, completed on your own without help from anyone else. Any cooperative work on the exam will result in a zero on the exam and a failing grade in the course overall. The individual piece of the final exam is worth 70% of your final exam score. The group piece of the final exam is worth 25% of your final exam score. The group piece will happen in your normally schedule class meeting during week 10 (which is in our normal room). You will work with your same assigned group, and you will all turn in one copy of the group exam. Everyone in your group will receive the same score on this part of the exam, so you will need to work together to come to consensus on your answers. Students who are not present for or are late to the group exam will not receive credit. In general, students' scores on the group exam is higher than their individual score, so the group portion of the exam is likely to help your grade compared to an exam that is entirely individual. The remaining 5% of your final exam score is earned by taking the course posttest. This posttest will be given during your normally schedule class meeting during week 10. To earn this credit, you need to arrive on time, complete all questions, and follow all instructions. If you arrive on time and complete all the questions, you will earn full credit on this portion of the exam regardless of whether your answers are correct. An overall course feedback survey will count towards a small extra credit bonus on the final exam. This survey is different from the weekly feedback surveys, and not the TA evaluation survey you will receive from the university at the end of the quarter. It will be available at the end of the course. Responses are anonymous. Credit is earned if survey is completed, regardless of answers. Like the weekly course feedback, this questionnaire helps the physics department and teaching team assess and improve this course. This class is not curved. Instead, the course uses the cutoffs below. To achieve a particular grade, your raw score must be above the cutoff for that grade; scores are not rounded. Also note that the maximum you can receive in any grading category is 100%. (A, A-) = (>93,>90) (B+,B,B-) = (>87, >83, >80) (C+,C,C-) = (>77, >73, >70) (D,F) = (>60,...